Category Archives: Awards

I’ve been sitting on a secret for a couple of weeks now, since I was delighted to learn one of my stories had been selected for Australian Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2013. Had to wait for the official announcement, before I could let anyone know.

The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2013 is scheduled for publication in late-November 2014 and can be pre-ordered at indiebooksonline.com. The anthology will be available in hardcover, ebook and trade editions.

At over 10,000 words, I didn’t think The Ways Wyrding Women would ever be published. It was too long for a short story and would take up too much room in an anthology. But Tehani Wessley of Fablecroft Press published it in One Small Step, the anthology which won an Aurealis Award and now it has been selected for The Year’s Best Australian Australian Fantasy and Horror. So thank you, Tehani!

And a special congratulations to Tehani Wessley, editor and publisher at Fablecroft Publishing. Her One Small Step Anthology was co-winner of the anthology section. This gives me a buzz because I have a story in it. Well done to Tehani for selecting such a strong collection of stories.

All the best to the winners and the finalists of the 2013 Aurealis Awards.

I only discovered this because I saw the Helen Lowe (who I interviewed here when she won the Morning Star Award with her first book) was on the short list for the Gemmell Award with her new book The Gathering of the Lost. Congratulations, Helen!

It’s always nice to Australians doing well out in the big wide world. And here we have several Hugo nominations for fellow Aussies. There’s two in the podcast section, Coode Street and Galactic Suburbia. I interviewed Tansy, Alisa and Alexandra about Galactic Suburbia here when their podcasts were nominated for a Hugo last year.

About ten years ago I ran a series of national mentoring workshops (EnVision) for aspiring speculative fiction writers. (Four published authors read a pod of 5 -6 writers’ books before the workshop, wrote up a report, then mentored them at the workshop while they rewrote. We found the aspiring writers came on in leaps and bounds under this one-on-one intensive development. EnVision was a Fantastic Queensland initiative, meaning I was on the management committee and put my hand up to run it).

One of the attendees was Rick Kennett. Not that Rick wasn’t already a brilliant writer of many years experience with a long list of publications behind him. Rick had a love of writing and the thought of hiding away somewhere for a week with a fellow writer who would read his book and give him feedback while he did rewrites was too good to refuse. (Frankly, I’d love to run away to write with feedback from a simpatico fellow writer). I’d heard of Rick of course but is a bit of a quiet achiever, living on the edge of the spec fic social scene here in Australia. So it was a joy to read his book and we’ve kept in touch ever since.

The Parsec Awards were established in 2006 to celebrate Speculative Fiction Podcasting. ‘Podcast shows are nominated by fans, and finalists are chosen by a yearly steering committee. Those finalists are then voted on by an independent panel of judges from outside of podcasting. Awards are given in several categories ranging from content to audio quality.’

It always give me a buzz to see a friend’s book doing well so I was particularly pleased to see Walking Shadows on the shortlist for the Davitt Award!

Nice cover, did I hear you say? Why thank you, Daryl did it.

And I was doubly pleased because Narrelle’s book was released by ClanDestine Press, my Indie Australian crime publisher. Narrelle is tickled pink but she’s currently in Canada with her travel writer partner so she can’t race back for the Gala Awards Dinner. I imagine Lindy Cameron, her editor, will be sitting at a table, fingers crossed, hoping she will have to accept on Narrelle’s behalf.

I interviewed Narrelle here about her writing life and creativity. She has a very dry sense of humour and a wonderful turn of phrase, which comes through in her books about ‘Gary, the daggy vampire‘.

So here I am madly scrambling to get through the day with work, family commitments and writing then I come home from a course and find good news on the Twitterverse.

A big congratulations to Marianne Delacourt (de Pierres), Narrelle Harris, Rhonda Roberts and me, we’re on the Long List for the Davitt Award. The Davitt Awards are run by Sisters In Crime. The award is named in honour of Ellen Davitt (1812-1879) who wrote Australia’s first mystery novel, Force and Fraud in 1865.

And another big Whoohoo because ‘The Price of Fame’ has made it onto the Long List for the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction (since this is my first foray into crime!). The Ned Kelly Awards are run by the Australian Crime Writers Association. The awards began in 1995 and they say ‘When it came to deciding on a name, co-opting the nation’s most infamous villain seemed a natural fit.’ The awards are known affectionately as the ‘Neds’. Lovely to see so many fellow female authors in the running for a Ned.

So this has been a good week, with the Long Listing of all three books from The Outcast Chronicles on the Gemmell Awards for their covers (thanks to Clint Langley!) and for the books themselves. And now the Long Listing of ‘The Price of Fame’. With 5 books published last year, (the 5th book was ‘The King’s Man’, an e-book exclusive), last year is all a bit of a blur for me, but it does feel nice now to come home to find four of the books are Long Listed for awards.

Now, if only I didn’t have to work to earn a living or sleep. I could get much more writing done!

It’s wonderful to see so many of my fellow Aussie authors on the long list. The Gemmell Legend Award is the ‘Reader’s Choice’ award for their favourite fantasy book of 2012/2013. It’s an honour to find my books on a list with these great authors. Having a bit of a Big Girl Squee here.

So if you enjoyed my trilogy please drop by and vote. (voting closes July 31st). Since all three books are on the list I’m not sure if they add up the votes for all three of my books or if the individual books of the trilogy are competing with each other. At any rate, I voted for Besieged.

At this point I’d like to thank the readers who voted for Clint Langley’s wonderful covers, which are on the long list for the Ravenheart (fantasy cover) Award.

‘The Ravenheart Award is to celebrate the hard working artists of the fantasy genre, whose covers tantalise and enchant readers. The award is open for any Fantasy book published in English in the year of nomination with the winner being crowned ‘Ravenheart Fantasy Artist of the Year’ for their work. With so many hours of hard work put into the book jackets that help make a title so special we felt that the artists deserve to be recognised.’

So if you thought Clint tantalised and enchanted readers with these covers, then please drop by (here’s the link) and vote for him! All three covers have been nominated which is a bit of a pity as it will split the vote, but perhaps they’ll add all the votes for Clint and put them in one pile. I voted for Besieged.